Model Trains come in different sizes, depending on what kind of railroad you want to run. The Big Indoor Trains™ pages focus on the largest trains that most people have room to run indoors. These trains are becoming more popular each year because they also look good circling a Collectible Village, such as those by Dept. 56(tm), Hawthorne Village(tm), or Lemax(tm). So many people who started out collecting "Village" pieces also start getting into model trains when they buy a train to go around their village collection. Other folks have inherited a Lionel or American flyer set and wonder if it's useful today for anything more than setting up at Christmas. The answer is, yes, very useful, and a lot of fun.

The two largest kinds of trains that are most practical for folks to display indoors are also the ones that look best around Collectible Villages. These are:

On30 - On30 is a fairly new kind of train that was originally invented to look good with Collectible Villages. Though they seem "old-timey" and maybe even "cute," they are actually accurate, detailed models of real trains that ran in many parts of the United States between 1840 and 1930.

These trains are nearly as big as some Lionel trains (below), but they run on the same kind of track that HO trains use. On30 trains require a minimum of a 38" x 38" space to run, although most "starter sets" come with enough track to make a 56" x 38" oval. If you don't have enough room for that, Bachmann makes an On30 streetcar set that can run back and forth in almost no space at all.

Most Collectible Trains, such as those by "Hawthorne Village" fall into the On30 designation as well (except for the Hawthorne Village Sports Trains). As a result, many people who start with a Thomas Kinkade(tm) or other collectible train find themselves adding Bachmann On30 trains, or vice versa - they all play together very nicely (in fact the mechanism for most of them is built in the same factory).

O Gauge/O27 - These names generally signify the old-fashioned trains that run on three-rail track such Lionel(tm) trains. O27 actually designates a kind of track that certain O gauge trains run on. In fact, many people use the terms O-gauge and O27 interchangeably when they are discussing Lionel train sets such as those shown in the Big Christmas Trains catalog. So don't get discouraged if vendors or articles seem to jump back and forth between the terms.

O-gauge/O27 trains are made to look right with accessories that are 1/48 the size of the real thing, so they'll look good around your Holiday Village as long as your table is big enough to hold a circle of track. Any set of Lionel (or even an old set of two-rail American Flyer) will look good around your Christmas tree. Most Lionel(tm) trains require at least a 40" by 40" space to run, though they come with enough track for a 40" x 60" oval.

Three other sizes of big trains are also run indoors, although they require a lot of room to run and display properly:

Large Scale - these are trains made to run outside. They look great around a Christmas tree, but almost none of them work with collectible villages. If you want more information about them, the Family Garden Trains web site is almost entirely devoted to these trains.

O Scale - Although Lionel trains run on O gauge track, they are actually a little smaller than they "should be" - that's how they can fit in fairly tight places. O scale trains that "serious" model railroaders use, are actually much larger and require much larger curves. So, while O scale is a great hobby, you probably won't be using O scale trains with a collectible village or display railroad.

S Scale - This scale was introduced by American Flyer and is barely available today except in well-used trains on eBay. I mention mostly in case you have an American Flyer or other S Scale train and was wondering if you could use it with a collectible village. The answer is that you can if you have room for the track, but most American Flyer track circles were too big to let the trains run on ordinary table-tops. "Pikemaster" track has smaller curves that will fit on your table better; a few other companies have made track from time to time that may work for you, as well.

All of the trains described above are fun, attractive, and useful in certain circumstances. If you have any question about the usefulness of one piece of equipment over another, please contact me.

A note about the scale of Christmas villages and accessories (You may skip this part if this sort of thing doesn't interest you.) You may notice that the people that come with Christmas villages don't generally look right next to the doorways on the houses. That's because most of the buildings are made in a scale that is about 1/48 the size of the "real thing," the "right" size for O-Gauge trains like the old 3-rail Lionel trains. But most of the people are made to a slightly larger scale, between 1/40 and 1/30 the size of the real thing. The manufacturers do this because they want the figures large enough to be seen properly and the buildings small enough so that customers can fit more than a couple of structures into their "village." (The exception to this rule is Hawthorne Village, whose people are the "right size" for their houses and for the O gauge and On30 trains running around them.) Many of the accessories and small animals are even larger in scale, since it would be pretty easy to overlook - or to lose - a chicken or a milk bottle that was "really" the "right" size to go with the Holiday Village houses. Most people don't notice, anyway. If your Christmas village winds up with a few figures or models that don't look quite right next to each other, don't stand them quite next to each other. Please don't let this "scare" you, as almost nobody ever notices this sort of thing. In fact, I use my many of my "Holiday Village People" on my garden railroad in the summer and on my Holiday Village in the winter. I just don't set them in the doorways of buildings on either railroad.

For More Information

If this article hasn't quite given you the information you need, try one of the following:

Which (Garden Train) Scale Should I Model? - Scale and gauge issues for "Large Scale" trains - the kind that run on 45mm (1.775") track outdoors - are much more complicated than they are for indoor trains. For that reason, our Family Garden Trains™ site has a whole article dedicated just to that subject. If you aren't planning to get into Large Scale trains, this article won't be much help. If you ARE planning to get into Large Scale trains, and you want some straight answers to complicated questions, check it out.